Analysis of Titanic Passengers Data¶
RMS Titanic – as everyone probably knows, but just in case I'll remind you, sank at 2:20 AM on the night of April 14th to 15th, 1912 after a collision with an iceberg in the Atlantic, during its maiden voyage from Europe to New York. Of the 2,208 people on board, only 712 survived, of which 6 died before the rescue ships with the survivors reached New York.
The route of the ship¶
Initially, the Titanic’s voyage proceeded without incident. The ship departed on time from the port of Southampton in the United Kingdom, heading for Cherbourg in France. Because that port was too shallow to accommodate the Titanic, passengers and cargo were brought onboard with the help of the tender (a small auxiliary ship) S.S. "Nomadic" (which, incidentally, still operates today on the Seine as a sightseeing vessel, retaining almost its original appearance). Next, the Titanic sailed to Queenstown in Ireland, from where, after taking on the remaining passengers, it set out on the morning of April 11th on its voyage across the Atlantic to New York.
Passengers¶
A standard III class ticket cost a month's salary for a skilled worker. A II class ticket – a month's salary for a teacher or clerk. And a I class ticket – a month's salary for a doctor or engineer. Of course, we are talking here about monthly salaries in the United States; in Europe, wages were several times lower. In I class, apart from the standard cabins, there were also several suites with prices that could make your head spin. These were mainly used by millionaires traveling with their servants, butlers, and maids. Naturally, for each member of staff, they had to pay the fare of a regular I class ticket.
For this reason, I class was mainly occupied by very wealthy people and those from so-called “society”. II class was taken by small industrialists, clergymen, lawyers, journalists, teachers, and tourists from Europe. In third class, practically only economic migrants traveled. Most of them were Irish, English, and Swedes, but there were also 50 Bulgarians, 37 Croats, 70 Lebanese, and 80 Syrians—most of whom were Christians fleeing the Ottoman Empire from religious persecution.
Throughout the voyage, III class passengers were separated and confined to their section of the ship (although they had a dining room, and their own promenade deck where they held dances and social gatherings). This was not the whim of the ship owner, but a requirement of the American Immigration Office, because after arriving in the USA, I and II class passengers disembarked normally, while III class passengers were transported to Ellis Island, where they were photographed, fingerprinted, and checked to see if they appeared in criminal records or psychiatric hospital files. Officials also checked whether they had tuberculosis, trachoma (an infectious eye disease still found today in poor countries), or whether they were polygamists or anarchists. Only after such screening could they begin their new, beautiful lives in the USA.
Passenger arrangement on the ship¶
The decks of the ship were marked with letters of the alphabet, starting from the highest boat deck, which mainly served as a promenade deck, and, in case of danger, also as an evacuation deck. Then the A deck, where the first-class lounges, library, and smoking room were located. B and C, which housed the first- and second-class cabins. D – the first- and second-class dining rooms. And E, F, and G, intended mainly for the cabins of the second and third classes and crew quarters. Lower down, partially already below the waterline, there were the cargo holds, boiler rooms, and engine room.
On the above diagram of the Titanic, I class areas are marked in yellow, II class areas in green, and III class passenger areas in brown. As you can see, the passengers of this class were separated. Single men occupied the bow section of the ship. Meanwhile, families and single mothers with children traveling to join their husbands, who had previously emigrated to the USA and were now able to pay for their families’ passage to join them, were accommodated at the stern.
The Accident¶
On that fateful day, April 14th, filet mignon (the most tender steak cut from the center of the tenderloin) with goose liver and artichokes, topped with truffle sauce, was served at first-class dinner. And to wash it down—champagne and rum sorbet. In third class, on the other hand, there were crackers with cheese and ham. That was still pretty good, since on most ships, third-class passengers had to bring their own food for the entire journey.
After dinner, when the passengers had already gone to sleep, at 11:40 PM an iceberg was spotted directly in front of the ship. The ship made a sharp turn to the left and half a minute later brushed against it with its starboard side. The advancing mass of ice bent the steel hull plates over a length of about 90 meters; the strain broke dozens of rivets holding the plates together, and water began to pour into the ship through small gaps (small, because their total size only slightly exceeded one square meter) inside the hull. The problem, however, was that water was flooding six of the forward compartments at once, while the ship could stay afloat with a maximum of four compartments flooded.
Evacuation of passengers¶
After stopping the engines and a 40-minute inspection of the damage conducted by the captain together with the ship's carpenter and the main designer of the ship, engineer Thomas Andrews, it was determined that the cracks in the hull could not be sealed, and the pumps would not be able to handle the water entering the vessel. It was calculated that the ship would sink within a maximum of two hours. The captain therefore ordered an evacuation. An alarm was sounded, passengers were awakened, everyone was given life jackets, and the lowering of lifeboats began. To calm the nervous passengers, the orchestra started playing. The first lifeboat was lowered at 00:40 (one hour after the collision). The next boats were lowered at five-minute intervals.
Number of lifeboats¶
After the disaster, accusations were made about the insufficient number of lifeboats. In fact, the Titanic was equipped with the following lifesaving equipment: two small boats, numbered 1 and 2, which were usually used for communication with the shore and for the possible transport of a small number of people or cargo – each of which could hold a maximum of 40 people. There were 14 large rowboats, numbered 2 to 16, each of which could accommodate 65 people. Additionally, there were 4 cork rafts with raised canvas sides, each capable of holding a maximum of 47 people. The regulations at the time dictated the number of boats not by the number of passengers, but by the ship’s tonnage (displacement). And the Titanic exceeded these standards.
What’s more, its designers considered the rapid sinking of such a large ship to be practically impossible and designed the lifesaving equipment for much more probable incidents, such as a machinery failure on the open sea or a collision with another, smaller ship. In either case, if continuing the voyage was impossible, the boats were only intended to transfer passengers between the Titanic and vessels sent by the White Star Line, which would arrive at the site within a few, or at most several, hours. In such circumstances, the number of lifeboats on the Titanic was more than sufficient. However, in our specific case—the collision with the iceberg—the number of lifeboats proved to be tragically inadequate.
Number of people in the lifeboats¶
The fact that the boats lowered into the water were not fully filled with people was due to the regulations of the time. Namely, the boats, during lowering, could not be fully loaded so as not to break the davits from which they were being lowered. The rest of the passengers, already on the water, were supposed to be taken on board through the opened side doors. The sense of these regulations was demonstrated by an incident during the lowering of one of the last boats, which was already maximally filled with passengers. At that time, boat number 13 with 65 people on board (according to the "Encyclopedia Titanica," or 55 according to Wikipedia), during lowering, damaged the davits to the extent that the ropes running through them jammed, and the boat hung almost a meter above the water. And since boat number 15 with 68 people was being lowered right next to it, the two boats narrowly avoided colliding and crushing the passengers. To prevent this, at the last moment, sailors cut the ropes holding up the first boat, which dropped into the water with force. The commissions (both English and American) that later investigated the accident did not consider the actions of the officers overseeing the lowering of the boats to be a mistake. In the photograph below, you can see what the process of passengers passing through the side doors into the boats looked like. The fact that on the Titanic these doors were ultimately not opened and each lifeboat on the water was not filled to capacity with passengers is a different story.
The fact that the boats, especially those launched first, were not filled to a greater extent was also due to the fact that passengers were not very eager to leave the calm and brightly lit deck of the largest and most luxurious ship in the world, only to transfer in the middle of the night to a small, wooden dinghy, swaying eight stories above the icy waves of the Atlantic. All the more so since there was no apparent real danger. That is why some ladies actually had to be forcibly pushed into the first lifeboats. Of course, the situation changed dramatically after several dozen minutes, when it became clear that the ship was sinking, but by then most lifeboats were already on the water.